Exploring the legacy of the rationalist medieval Torah scholars, and various other notes

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

B'Toraso Shel Rav Gedaliah

Rav Gedaliah Nadel was a fascinating figure. He was one of the foremost talmidim of the Chazon Ish, and lived underneath from Rav Chaim Kanievsky in Bnei Brak. On the other hand, he believed that the world was billions of years old, accepted evolution, held that Chazal were fallible and science, and that the mabul did not cover the entire world. I had a memorable meeting with him before he passed away.After his passing, Rav Yitzchak Shilat published a compilation of his teachings, entitled B'Toraso Shel Rav Gedaliah, which was promptly placed in cherem. Of course, they couldn't claim that Rav Gedaliah had heretical views, because he was too big, so instead they claimed that the book misrepresents his views. (It was prepared by one of his main talmidim, from audio recordings, and from my own meeting with him I can confirm that he held these views.)I was please to see that the incredible website www.hebrewbooks.org now has this work available for free download. Furthermore, it is possible to copy-and-paste text from the PDF file. Baruch Hashem for the Information Age!

15 comments:

Interesting coincidence as just yesterday I saw a blog reference that mentioned that R. Nadel's works were on hebrewbooks. Took a chance, and found B'Toraso there! I had given up hope on getting a copy as previously was told that it could only be obtained by visiting R. Shilat personally. Yay!

What "implying?" That's of course true. The world isn't really a few thousand years old; that's the metzius. If someone accepts that view then he or she is accepting a false history of the world. Nothing could be more poshut.

I know this is years after the comment, but I disagree, although I believe fully that the world was created 13,8 billion years ago. The Torah is not FALSE. Therefore, while we can discuss many different meanings of what the Torah means in describing creation as a 6 days process culminating in Adam (and Chazal seem to have understood that as well, based on discussions about whether Creation started on the 25th of Elul or 25th of Adar), it is very problematic even for rationalists to describe what the Torah says as a "false history of the world." Don't get me wrong, i know what you mean ---- but that view is not FALSE, it is just not the entire physical picture of what occurred.

"After his passing, Rav Yitzchak Shilat published a compilation of his teachings, entitled B'Toraso Shel Rav Gedaliah, which was promptly placed in cherem."

Oddly, the jpost article you linked to said R' Nadel's book was banned, but the only words they quoted were the following:

"The greatness of Rabbi Gedalia Nadel, may this righteous man's name be a blessing, was known to all," wrote the rabbis.

"His genius was incredible and he was an exemplary model of Torah scholarship. As a student of the Hazon Ish he had an unwavering grasp of the truth of the Torah. Yet few could plumb the depths of his thoughts... Therefore we fear that ideas found in unauthorized texts or recordings will be published in his name. We hereby warn not to rely on any book published in his name by any other than Rabbi Nadel's family and students."

I just want to verify that "warn not to rely on" is the same as "ban."

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This website is an exploration into the rationalist approach to Judaism that was most famously presented by Maimonides. It will also explore contemporary rationalist approaches, as well as being a forum for various other notes. Well-written comments in the spirit of this enterprise will be posted; please include a name (even a pseudonym).